Indoor Gardening

As much as I love the colours of autumn, I'm sad to see the gardening season end.

The ornamental grass has gone to seed and the subtle shades of green, white and brown are beautiful against the backdrop of fallen leaves and white, board and batten church. ~

But, the grey days of November are looming and I know I'll want a little something to nurture along in the house.

At the grocery today, I spied this sad little sell off. ~

"And, you would be doing what with a wilted Boston lettuce?", you say.

Ah, but it has these.  Teeny, tiny roots! ~

I potted one of these up last year, the roots took and I was picking peppery tasting Boston lettuce leaves for months!  I've given this baby a second chance and it will bring a nice bit of green to my kitchen windowsill. ~

You can't find a cheaper way to add some greenery to the house AND spice up your salads with home grown produce.  If your are lucky enough to live where your growing season is just starting or, better yet, is all year round, these do very well in outdoor planters.

It won't even hurt Maeve when she climbs up to the window and nibbles on the leaves.  The shamrock will be thanking me for the respite from kitty teeth!

Feel free to copy this badge in support of Malala

I'm sharing this with ~ Creative Bloggers Party & Hop, Sunny Simple Sunday

There's A Nip In The Air

There's a nip in the air for the last few days and a hard frost is coming tonight.  The wind has whipped around the house today and swirled masses of fallen leaves across the windows.  My youngest cat has spent hours running from window to window, batting at the elusive things!

I'm shutting down the yard and hunkering down in the house with comfort foods.  Today, I made some 'to die for' potato soup.  I'm not very good at following recipes but the inspiration came from Posed Perfection and you can find it here.

Could I get any more bacon, chives and cheese on this soup? ~

Yesterday, I made beef and root veggie stew.  A little round steak, carrots, onions, squash, potatoes and celery root, simmering in the pan for a couple of hours is the most heavenly smell wafting through the house!  I add a little fresh garden kale, while the gravy thickens in the last half hour.

Look at all this swirly gravy goodness! ~

My next post better be about the yummy diet meals I'm making!

The garden is yielding a couple of surprises this October.  A $5 sell off rose bush I planted a couple of weeks ago, has given me one perfect, pink bloom. ~

An older rose bush has gone berserk this year and shot up to the eave, in spite of all my pruning! ~

She refuses to follow her sister bushes and go to sleep and is giving 15 or 20 huge blooms a day!  I have them in vases all over the house. ~

It's a good night to snuggle up with a charming, little kitty. ~

If only Maeve were either charming or snuggly, that's exactly what I would do on this chilly autumn eve!

My heartfelt thanks to all of you, who so graciously passed on this button in support of Malala!

My readers are very special people and I'm humbled and grateful to have you in my life!

I'm Standing Up For Malala Yousafzai!

I planned on writing a lovely Thanksgiving post, full of pictures of rose bouquets and scarlet leaves.  I couldn't write it because I was so enraged over the attempted murder of a fourteen year old girl in Pakistan.

I don't discuss my political leanings or religious beliefs on this blog.  I'm not qualified to discuss either area.  This is a lifestyle blog and it's entertainment value lies in sharing my thoughts on home, family, pets and all the little areas of life that make me happy.

Malala Yousafzai, on the other hand, began a blog at the age of eleven to document her life after the Taliban took control of her region in Pakistan.  Her blog was published, under an assumed name, by BBC urdu.  What did she write about?  She wrote about schooling for girls being outlawed and how she wanted to study to be a doctor.  She wrote about holidays and shopping for bracelets.  She wrote about hiding text books under her shawl and her fear of being killed if she was caught.  She wrote about her girlfriends and about gunfire and atrocities.  Aren't those the things every little girl writes in her diary?

The photo is courtesy of indiansinpakistan.blogspot.com
I have added the frame and text

A few years later, the Taliban was ousted from her region and Malala was acknowledged as the author of the posts.  She received the International Children's Peace Prize.  She was honoured for bravery that surpassed that of most of the adults and authority figures around her.  She was honoured for speaking the truth and fighting for women's equality.

On Tuesday, as fourteen year old Malala left her school to board the bus, she was shot in the head and neck by Taliban militants. They have stated that they were assassinating her for her support of Western culture.

I was appalled that two cowardly men would shoot down an unarmed girl, just for wanting to go to school.  You can read the news story here.  I felt powerless to change this evil in the world.  Then, I began thinking about the extremists being so afraid of her blog voice that they felt they had to silence her.

If being denounced on a child's blog frightened them so much, what if I spoke out next?  They silenced one person but picked up another.  What if even one of you clicked on the I'm Standing Up For Malala Yousafzai picture on this blog and posted it to fb, tweeted it or added it to your next blog post.  They would have silenced one, but picked up two.  Can we get it on Pinterest?

We are not immune to what happens in a far off country.  It is no longer inconceivable that denying girls education in one country can spread to other countries.  Our daughters and granddaughters are not safe from gender persecution while it thrives anywhere on this planet.

Malala is a 21st century Anne Frank.  She is fighting for her life as you read this.  I won't let another brave, little girl down.

If just one of you will pick up the image and pass it on, Malala's voice will rise above the Taliban terror tactics and they may think twice before they turn any more of our girls into martyrs.  There is no link back to this post on the image and I'm not setting myself up as a spokesperson.  I'm just one woman who is standing up for women all over this beautiful world.

For a link to the BBC excerpts from her blog click here.

    

Please right click on Malala's pic and pass it on!

Add Impact With Repetition

They say we have to hear something seven times for it to really sink in.  Decorators know you need to repeat an accent colour three times in a room for it to register in the mind as THE accent colour.  In my years of decorating show homes in seasonal themes, I found repetition gave the most impact.

When I decorated the little 28" long mantel in my library for Hallowe'en, I stuck with the witches and crows theme that was on the bookcases.

Dollarama had 8" tall crows for $2 each and I bought three of them. That's a lot of crow for a 28" space! ~

They are identical but setting them at different angles makes them seem different.  They're big enough to catch the eye.  I feel it has more presence that having a crow, a pumpkin and a ghost.  I tend to lean toward using uneven numbers in this kind of grouping, as well.

In the last post, I showed you how I made this print of a witch from an image I found on The Graphics Fairy. ~ 

I went back to her site for my lovely witch's baby picture, printed it out and tucked it in a silver, Georgian era frame.  Just so you don't think I'm super stingy, I will tell you that I pay dearly for the things that are pre Victorian.  If it comes from the era of one of Jane Austen's heroines, no price is too high for me!  Well, almost no price. ~

The toile wallpaper in this room is so busy that I have to be careful with accessories.  The electric fireplace gets a simple notebook and the paper wand I made last fall.  ~

To see how I made the wand click here.

Here it is all together. ~

I've used repetition in the dining room as well.  When Michael's put these tin buckets, with numbered burlap embellishments, on half price, I bought all nine they had left.  They add some interest to the reclaimed door lintel I hung above the pass through to the kitchen.  Again there is an uneven number and I avoided it being too linear by tucking a pair of Fitz & Floyd pig salt and peppers into the grouping. ~

I guess this is my sneaky way of having clutter that doesn't quite look like clutter.

If I say it seven times, you'll believe me!

The Easiest Hallowe'en Craft Going!

Here are Maeve and I happily going about our household chores. ~

Okay, so it's not really me (unless you're talking to my ex husband LOL).  I may be a witch but I NEVER go happily about household chores!  It's a vintage print that caught my eye at The Graphics Fairy.

I started playing around with it on Picmonkey and added some witchy words in a spooky script. ~

I printed it out in an 8 X 10 size.  It still needed a little something and I sprayed it with glue and added glitter. Doesn't everything look better with glitter on it? ~

I popped it in a document frame.  I have a stack of these that held decorating awards in my office and no idea what to do with them all.

A couple of Egyptian cats that I picked up at an antique store for $6 and a crystal ball and I've a little Hallowe'en display for the bookcases. ~

Just above my sorceress is a glittery spider crawling down an antique, leather bound copy of Edgar Allen Poe's poetry. ~

Add some Martha Stewart crows and Poe, himself, would be trembling at this awesomely scary display! ~

This was ridiculously easy, but if you don't want to go to the bother of doing it yourself, click on the printable of the altered witch and print her out.  Done!

Now, how easy was that!

I admit I do sissy Hallowe'en decorating!

I'm sharing this with ~ Uncommonly Yours Link Party, Frugal Friday, Potpourri Friday, Saturday Nite Special, Feathered Nest Friday, Sunny Simple Sunday, DIY Project Parade, Open House Party

The Ultimate In Thrifty Decor!

I know I said my front porch was entirely done with thrifted items, but I think the side porch is the ultimate in thrift, gift, reworked and found!

You see, the porch itself is a found object.  I set out to repair a broken step on the porch.  When I removed it, the boards underneath were rotten, so I removed them as well.  By the time I finished removing all the rotted boards, I had - ummmm - NO PORCH LEFT!  This is not a good thing.

As it happens, my neighbour was replacing his porch with a deck and gifted me with it.  A couple of guys carried it over to my place and there it sat, on it's side, for a year. That's attractive and oh so useful! This summer, I hired a couple of teenage guys to lay patio stones I pulled up when the landscaping was done in the back and move the porch into place on top of them.  It's set on deck post blocks that my BIL gave me when he pulled his deck off.

A couple of coats of white paint, some stencilled house numbers and Kellswater painted on the top step and she doesn't look too bad! ~

Then, I was given a very ugly, old window box. ~

Haul out the paints to give it a weathered look and draw some lines on to simulate boards with a permanent marker and it's not half bad.  Even the cascade petunias were gifted as seedlings! ~

To switch it out for Thanksgiving was about a 10 minute effort.  The old, wooden ladder was salvaged from my Dad's garage and held planters of watercress all summer.  I love the layers of paint and plaster that show how well this ladder was used!  I strung some dollar store garland, faux grapes and grapevine on it to celebrate the season. ~

I've had this wreath for several years and added some blue, silk hydrangeas to it for summer. ~

The simple switch was made with four bunches of silk leaves, from the dollar store, that I already had on hand. ~

Here she is all done. ~

Total cost for porch and decorations = $0.  I did pay the guys $60 to install the porch and bought two quarts of white paint to spruce her up.

The porch looks over the hosta bed I planted from the ones my sister pulled out of her gardens. ~

You must admit this is the ultimate in thrift, gift, reworked and found and that I have stayed true to the commitment to it that I made last summer!  Feel free to clap and shout Bravo as I take my bow!

I'm sharing this with:  Tweak It Tuesday, Cottage Style Linky Party, Saturday Nite Special

A Thrifted Fall Porch

As I was working on a little project for the front porch farm theme, I realized that the whole thing was put together with faux fruit and garlands that were several years old, natural elements and thrift store finds.

I copied an old egg sign I saw at a farm market. ~

The canvas I used was found at the Salvation Army for $1.99. ~

It did not come with the helpful cat but it was quite sturdy and a nice size for what I wanted. ~

A few swipes of white paint covered the original lettering and left enough of the old background to look worn.  The lettering was done in craft paint and I dry brushed some white over it for a faded look. ~

Just in case you are wondering why I chose a quarter for the price of a doz. eggs, I did a little Google research to check out prices over the years.  In 1927 they cost 24 cents.  In 1940 they were 27 cents.  By 1960 they had reached 42 cents and, by 1980, soared to 69 cents. Even at today's average of $3.00, that tells me we aren't paying farmers enough for eggs!

My table and chairs are a roadside find and I used a couple of cans of spray paint to turn the peeling, white metal matte black.  The table top is damaged and I cover it with a hand, cross stitched tablecloth that I picked up for $1.  I don't want to put anything expensive on it because either my cat or strays always seem to be snoozing there! ~

It has a homey, country feel when I add an antique Majolica pitcher with some sunflowers. ~

The mirror was another Salvation Army find and cost me a whole $3.99!  It started out looking like this. ~

I aged it with paint that was either sample pots or boo boos and you can see how I did it here. ~

I was trimming rose bushes and draped a branch with rose hips across it for some colour.

With a little effort and almost no cost, this is a nice place to sit and have an afternoon cup of tea.

The spectacular view is free! ~

Doesn't everyone have an adorable, little white church next door?

Special thanks to Lavender Garden Cottage and Have A Daily Cup Of Mrs. Olsen for featuring my front door swag!